Post-Surgery Update - Livin' the Good Life

Nov. 8th, 2014

07:16 pm - Post-Surgery Update

It has been just over 8 weeks since I had surgery. I remember my surgery from 20 years ago and how terribly disappointed I was that the recovery took so long. It was a whole year before I felt somewhat normal. I remember going to my doctor (surgeon) at about 8 weeks post-surgery, and telling him that I still felt terrible. My digestion wasn't working properly. I had gas pain. I had very little energy. I felt something wasn't right. He ordered an x-ray, and they found nothing wrong..... other than a tremendous amount of gas in my guts. But, there were no blockages. My doctors advice? Go home and take Gas-X. That was useless advice, because it did NOT work. So I felt like a hypochondriac and went home and suffered.THIS time, at 8 weeks post-surgery, I feel great! My digestion IS right. I have no gas pain. I have plenty of energy. My elimination is excellent. This is a whole different experience. And this was a much more serious and invasive surgery than before, where substantial parts of my intestine were removed and I was "resectioned", leaving me with two feet less intestine, no cecum (the connection between the small and large intestine) and only part of my sigmoid (the part just before the rectum), which I thought were all essential parts of my body. How could my digestion possibly work without them? I worried about that. But, lo and behold, my intestines work fine. In fact, better than before!

Thanks to my chiropractor, I got on a regime one week post-surgery that helped me recover quickly. He put me on massive doses of probiotics. I was instructed to sip water every 15 minutes all day long. And I got adjusted 3 times a week, which gave me ample opportunity to ask questions and address my concerns with him. He has been figuratively "holding my hand" through this process of recovery, and I'm bouncing back in a way that has surprised us all. (Steve remembers how long it took for me to recover before and was not looking forward to repeating that.) I also have much more help this time around and did not come home to a houseful of responsibilities and an 8 year old who very much still needed me. This time, I could fully focus on healing and resting. That helped.

One thing I learned from the experience this time: I am super-sensitive to drugs, and I'm easily over-medicated. The pain meds, and the anti-nausea meds I took to counteract the pain meds, were throwing me for a loop. Dealing with that was worse than the surgery itself. Much worse. So now that I know this about myself, I must be careful not to let it happen again, if at all possible. I was literally out of my mind and hallucinating to the point of it being scary for me and those around me for a whole week after surgery. CAN'T let this happen again. (Note to self and everyone dealing with me!)

Anyway, NOW I am doing well, getting back to my old self much faster than expected, and am experiencing optimism for the future. Thanks again to everyone who helped. I can never thank you all enough.

Comments:

Such good, good news! I wonder if in part, the reason you are recovering better this time is due to the repairs the Dr actually did. Maybe you just really got rid of stuff your body needed gone. That, plus the fact that you did not have Maya last time! And your sons are older and so helpful.